Crashing Down
by cotederpablo
Summary: Set at the beginning of S10. After the entire team escapes with their lives from the deadly explosion, everything seems fine. Normal, even. But soon Ziva discovers that beneath the surface, one team member did not escape completely unscathed, and together they must rebuild what once was, or risk losing it forever.
1. Chapter 1

Tony woke to a surging pain in his head, the tickle of warm breath on sweaty cheek, and the sound of his name being called by a familiar voice.

He tried to speak, but any noise that actually escaped his mouth came in the form of a wheeze. He coughed, clearing his throat, and the body above him, whom he was now aware was lying on top of him, exhaled in relief.

"Thank God," the voice of the person murmured. He opened his eyes, and as his blurry vision became clear, he recognized the owner of the voice.

"Officer David," he said, his voice still hoarse. "Why are you on top of me?"

"Officer?" she questioned sharply, having been awake much longer than him and clearly not sustaining any serious head injuries.

"Sorry, Zee-vah," he replied, then repeated his question.

"I heard the bomb go off and I - "

"Bomb?" his eyes opened fully as he spoke.

"Tony, Dearing placed it in the Director's car. It blew up the building."

"Dearing? What?" he asked, alarmed. "Is the Director OK? How bad's the damage?"

"How would I know? I'm stuck in here with you," she reminded him, and he immediately felt stupid.

She tried to shift her weight to be more comfortable. He let out a yelp.

"Oh, I think you might have a few broken ribs," she said in a concerned voice. She carefully prodded the sensitive area with her finger. A high-pitched noise escaped him once again.

"Yeah, probably broken," she replied. "Anything else?"

He blinked at her a few times, then spoke: "Yeah. My head hurts. A lot."

"I think you hit it on the way down. Hopefully nothing too nasty."

"Yeah. Right." He stared at her for a moment then, and when asked why, he muttered something incoherent. Ziva's logical mind told her not to worry about it, but her heart told her something wasn't right. It was cancelled out, though, for now, because frankly, she had bigger things to worry about.

...

A man in a uniform, with a little assistance from the Jaws of Life, finally pulled them out of the elevator. As the steel elevator walls crumbled under the mechanism, Ziva felt a little pang inside of her. After all, this elevator had been the scene of so many memorable moments. Some good, some not so good...maybe getting rid of ghosts wasn't all bad. The light she saw gave her hope. The sun was setting over the D.C. skyline, and the sky had turned a magnificent shade of pink. A good thing in the midst of disaster - one thing she had learned in her short life not to take for granted.

"This is what the sunsets look like in Israel," Ziva told Tony, fully aware that a) he'd been to Israel and b) he probably wasn't listening. Still, she felt the need to mention it. "Only brighter."

Apparently, Ziva and Tony were the last two out. They were sent straight to Bethesda where they were told the other surviving agents were waiting for them.

_Surviving. _

As in the ones who weren't blown to pieces. What Ziva hated, more than the fear, more than the pain, was the uncertainty. She did not want to have to run through all the possibilities in her mind. She did not want to contemplate not having her family. She didn't want that.

Tony nearly collapsed after attempting to stand, which re-focused her attention on the task at hand. She hurried over to him, acting as a crutch while they staggered their way over to a waiting ambulance. They were strapped in, and the window was left open just a crack, a cool breeze floating in. When they turned the sirens on, Tony winced and held his head with the arm opposite to the side of the broken ribs.

"Never liked the sirens," Tony said softly.

"You chose a good profession, then," she replied. They sat quietly for the remainder of the trip, though more than once she caught his eyes trained on her again.

It didn't feel like the stares he'd send across the bullpen, with a smile, or sometimes a paper airplane, rubber band or spitball. It was different. He frowned as he stared. It almost felt like he was examining her.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, finally snapping.

"Nothing," he replied. "I just…nothing."

...


	2. Chapter 2

Neither Tony nor Ziva had ever felt a hug so tight - or painful, for that matter - from Abby. She met them at the door.

"I'm so glad you guys are OK!" she said, obvious tears in her eyes.

"Abby, Abby, calm down," Ziva said slowly. She gripped the Goth by her forearms. "What's happening? Are the others alright?"

Abby gave an innocent sniff. "Bert...he...he didn't make it."

Ziva frowned, confused. "Who is Bert?"

"The farting hippo," Tony supplied, and Ziva replied with a simple 'oh'.

"We'd just been through so much together, you know? Gibbs bought him for me, my birthday the year I started at NCIS."

"But everyone else is OK?" Tony asked carefully. "McGee? Boss?"

She nodded. "They're fine. A little beat up, but they're alive. McGee has a fractured ulna,

though. I think Gibbs is in his room with him. Follow me."

His arm still over her shoulder, Tony and Ziva stumbled after Abby, up two flights of stairs too. Neither of them were feeling mentally ready to set foot in another elevator, and both knew it would be a while before they did.

By the time they reached Tim's room, they were both pretty exhausted, and Gibbs, who looked almost unscathed save for a cut beneath his left eye, gladly gave up his seat. They flopped into the stiff hospital chairs in perfect unison.

Tim lay with his legs over the edge of the crisp white bed, his left arm in a sling.

"Never thought I'd say this, but boy, am I glad to see you, Tony," he said, a goofy smile on his face (probably from the painkillers).

"Same here, Probie," Tony replied tiredly. "You look, uh..."

"Like crap," Gibbs finished with a small smile.

"Thanks, Boss."

"Actually I was gonna say you looked kinda thin," Tony said unsurely. McGee took it as a

compliment.

"Thanks, Tony. I'm glad you noticed. You'd be surprised what giving up those Nutter Butters can do," he replied, surprisingly happily for someone in his state.

Gibbs squinted in Tony's direction. "You feelin' alright, DiNozzo?"

Tony exhaled, puffing out his cheeks and sinking lower into the chair. "I've felt better, Boss."

Just then, a stout bald doctor with a clipboard entered the rather crowded hospital room.

"How are those painkillers coming along, Agent McGee?" he asked flatly, and Tim replied that they were fine, but his friends might need some attention.

"Well, well, who have we here?" the doctor asked, and Gibbs spoke for them.

"Agents DiNozzo and David," he said, jerking a thumb towards both of them as he spoke their names.

"I'm Doctor McGrath, let's take a look." He examined Ziva first, and it didn't go unnoticed how much Ziva twitched and flinched under his careful touch. She clearly didn't appreciate having strange hands on her.

"You seem fine, Agent David," he said. "Your vision is good, your reflexes are good. Too good, even, for somebody who's just been blown up. However, you'll probably feel some pain at some point, so I'll get you something to dull that for you."

Ziva nodded. "Thank you, Doctor. My partner thinks he may have broken a few ribs, and he hit his head when the bomb went off. Hard."

The doctor set down his clipboard. "We better take a look at you, then."

...

Tony was sent to be X-rayed and examined further, and meanwhile the team remained quiet in that little hospital room.

Ziva sat with her chin resting on her hand in the same chair she had taken earlier. Her head was spinning, though her face, to someone who didn't know better, looked quite placid. There were too many unanswered questions, and the silence was eerie to her. She had to break it.

"Has anyone gotten ahold of Ducky?"

"I've been trying, but he's not picking up," Abby said. "What if...what if Dearing got to him too? Oh, Gibbs." She threw her arms around Gibbs' neck.

"Calm, Abs," he whispered in her air, patting her back softly. "He's NCIS' ME. They would have called him as soon as they received word of the blast. He's responsible for all the bodies."

"Yeah, Abby, he's probably on a plane right now, that's why he isn't answering," McGee said reassuringly.

"And Jimmy?" she asked, though she already sounded much calmer.

"Jimmy is with his wife, Abby. Lord knows what they're doing," Ziva said. Abby released her grip on the silver-haired man.

"You're right," the Goth declared. "They're gonna be fine. Ducky'll be here by morning, maybe even earlier!" With that, she announced she was going to the bathroom and ducked into the busy but quiet hallway with a brave face.

"Gibbs?" Ziva called. "Have you...have you considered the possibility that Dearing actually _did _get to Ducky or Jimmy?"

"I've considered every possibility, Ziva," he said. "Including that one. Let's get outta here first. Worry about tomorrow when it comes."

"Are you sure we can afford to think like that, Gibbs? With everything that's happened, I am not sure we can."

"You're worried about something," he assumed.

"We got off too well. It doesn't seem like Dearing got his message across."

"There were casualties, David. He blew up a building with top-secret government

resources. He got his message across plenty. And once we catch him, he's done. Don't expect anything more from him. I gotta feeling that bomb was his grand finale."


	3. Chapter 3

Ziva found Tony sitting alone in the cafeteria two hours later. He was staring forlornly at the paper coffee cup in his hands which, upon closer inspection, had Tony scrawled on it in curly handwriting. He picked at a danish beside him but never really touched it.

"Everything OK?" she asked tentatively. He looked up, as if he hadn't seen her.

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. They said it's just one rib, and it's not a break, it's a fracture, so shouldn't take too long to heal." He continued fiddling with the cup in his hands. She nodded positively.

"And your head?"

"Doc thinks it isn't all that nasty - no serious damage, he thinks. But he gave me some pills, said it'd hurt, I might get dizzy spells occasionally."

"That why you kept staring at me?" she asked forwardly. "In the van. You don't usually do that."

"And you don't usually use contractions but I didn't feel the need to comment on that," he said, matter-of-factly.

"Tony, I'm sure I was bound to become accustomed to the language sometime. It has been seven years."

His eyes met hers in an instant. "Seven years?" He sounded shocked. Very shocked. She laughed unsurely.

"Look, Tony, I'm not going to punish you for forgetting our anniversary," Ziva joked, though Tony's obvious surprise concerned her. "I, um, think you need a good night's sleep. This whole thing has really shaken you."

"Yeah...it's nearly midnight, my apartment's way too far, and Doc said they might need to keep me here overnight to make sure my head doesn't get any worse," he rambled.

"I thought you said it wasn't bad," Ziva said. "It isn't - they think. Better safe than sorry, right?" He tossed his cup the few feet from where he was standing perfectly into a nearby trash can, and pushed the danish towards her, offering it to her. She shook her head.

"You usually don't have a problem with my germs," he commented. "You certainly didn't last week."

"Not hungry," Ziva said, though couldn't recall any time last week or even recently she'd stolen food from him.

"Maybe I'll get the nurses to set up a cot in McGee's room. He crashed hours ago; I think they're just gonna let him stay there. Night."

"Night," Ziva replied, but she felt something. Her gut. It was telling her something was not right.

**A/N: Short but I wanted to post this so yeah. More soon :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you for reviews/alerts! I'm really loving writing this story. **

Tony got a call at practically the crack of dawn the next morning from Gibbs.

"_You still at the hospital?" _he asked.

"Yeah," Tony yawned, stretching out his stiff back. "Geez, Boss, why'd you have to call so early? You're not in the Marine Corps anymore, you know."

"_No such thing as an ex-Marine, DiNozzo. Anyway, you got two weeks. Take a vacation. Another team's been assigned to our case."_

"You sound pissed."

"_Ya think, DiNozzo?" _All Tony heard after that was dial tone. Still waking up, Tony looked over to McGee's bed, which was surprisingly empty. He stood up to go look for him, when he appeared in the doorway, a cheery smile on his face, and he was closely followed by Ziva.

"Morning, Tony," Tim said jubilantly. "Sleep well?"

"Like a baby," Tony replied unenthusiastically, his eyelids drooping.

"Someone's in a bad mood this morning," Ziva said. "Have some coffee."

He was surprised at her generous gesture but accepted the cup just the same. He took a large gulp. "Hey, not hospital coffee!" he exclaimed, perking up. Like most things, Tony's taste in coffee was expensive.

"Nope, Ziva drove us to that place off the highway that you like."

He turned in surprise to Ziva, who just shrugged sheepishly. "After last night, I thought you might need it."

"I think at some point there was a muffin for you but is disappeared on the journey back," McGee said apologetically. "Sorry." He looked to Ziva, then back to Tony. "I think I'm gonna go home. Pack a suitcase, go see my sister."

Ziva smiled. "That's nice, McGee."

He bid them farewell, and Tony and Ziva were left alone in the cramped white room.

"You know, in the five years I've worked with Gibbs, no one's even _thought _about blowing up the Navy Yard."

"Five years?" Ziva asked, frowning.

"Yeah," Tony chucked. "Feels longer, believe me."

At that moment, something clicked inside Ziva's brain. She knew what was up. Why he'd been acting so odd. Why he'd called her an officer instead of an agent. Why he'd blanked on Dearing's name.

"Tony," she said, fear rising in her voice, and her face. "What…." She hesitated for a second, fearing his possible answer. "What year is it?"

He squinted and tilted his head sideways. "You're channelling Marty McFly a little, Ziva. Are you OK?"

Her chest heaved with every breath. "I will be if you answer my question."

"You're acting a little…"

"Tony!" she snapped. "What _year _is it?"

"Calm down, I know what year it is."

"Say it," she ordered.

His hands flew up in surrender. "2005! Are we good now?"

Her entire body froze up. Her jaw tightened every time she tried to speak. Her eyes glazed over. He watched her completely shut down before his eyes, and it scared _him _how much it scared _her. _

At that moment, her cell phone rang - Abby's custom ringtone. He watched her face become neutral as she morphed into 'professional Ziva'.

"Abby, now is not a good…" she trailed off, and any front of being alright she gave off to the world completely disappeared. "What? Where is he now? Here?" Pause. "OK…see you there."

Ziva rubbed her forehead, staring at the floor.

"What's going on?" Tony asked, getting up and moving to her.

"Ducky had a heart attack," she whispered, almost in tears. "He's been transferred here, Abby just got the call from Gibbs. He's OK, thank God." Her voice cracked sharply as she spoke. "He's on the fifth floor. The team are on their way. Come on."

She tried to drag him out of there. Forget the fact that his mind believed it was seven years ago. Forget that. This was Ducky, the _one _man who Ziva had had there for her in all her time at NCIS. He had been there for her when no one else was, the perfect giver of advice, and most importantly, he was family. She had to prioritise. Let Tony live in the past for another hour or so.

"Hey," Tony said, stopping her. "This whole thing…I guess it's affected you more than I thought it would. I mean, you're usually tough as nails, but you can't be like that all the time and if you ever need to, you know, talk…"

She smiled through her worry. "That's very sweet of you, Tony." In retrospect, she realised how mature that was of 2005-Tony. After all, the tough girl he hardly knew was practically breaking down in front of him, and he was completely there for her.

Interesting, how circumstances change things.

…

Gibbs was the emergency contact for Ducky, but since they weren't family, Tony and Ziva weren't permitted to see him until he arrived, a frantic Abby in tow.

"Two at a time, please," the timid-looking nurse instructed. "Doctor Mallard is sleeping. We'd appreciate if you didn't wake him, but you're welcome to stay until them."

Tony and Gibbs went in first, since Abby clearly wasn't very quiet at the moment.

"I can't believe this is happening! I mean, it's – it's Ducky! Ducky is….I can't believe this is happening!" she rambled loudly. Ziva quickly tried to calm her.

"Abby, you need to relax, OK?" she said. "We have a problem."

"Of course we have a problem!" Abby exclaimed. "Ducky is in critical condition and our building's just been blown up!"

"No, I mean another problem. Tony has amnesia. He…he thinks it's 2005."

Abby just looked stunned. "I…I….what?"


	5. Chapter 5

"_Memory loss?" _Abby hissed.

"Sh!" Ziva warned, thinking Tony might come out of the room and hear them. "When we woke up in the elevator, he called me 'Officer David'. After that, he kept staring at me – I mean, I do look very different than I did seven years ago, it makes sense that he would. We have to tell him, we have to fix this."

"Don't let him know you know!" Abby told Ziva in a hushed shout. "He's dealing with all this already, we can't just load more stress onto him! He's strong, but he can only handle so much!"

Ziva took an intimidating step towards the Goth. "I told you in confidence, Abby," she said harshly. "What makes you think the decision is yours to make?"

"I've known him the longest! He's one of my best friends," Abby argued.

"He is _my _partner." Ziva's usually sweet brown eyes were thin, and her fists were instinctively clenched at her sides.

The anger on Abby's face faded, and she stepped away. "Huh."

"'Huh' _what_?"

"You know, I never said you cared less, Ziva."

Ziva's lips parted at her statement, but before she could analyse it in her mind, her peripheral vision caught sight of a body advancing towards them.

"Tony called me back, is Ducky OK?" a breathless Tim asked, leaning forward and panting.

"He's fine, Timmy. He's asleep," Abby informed him, looking back and forth between him and Ziva. Ziva just stared at the raven-haired girl. What did she mean by that? _I never said you cared less._

"Good," Tim panted. "I'm…gonna go sit down."

Abby patted the man's back and turned back to Ziva, looking expectant.

Ziva spoke first. "I know you never said that."

"Look, it's clear that you and Tony have some 'unresolved issues', but you need to think about what's best for _him,_" Abby replied sternly, but not loud enough for McGee to hear.

She looked taken aback. "Are you saying I'm being selfish by wanting to tell him the truth?" _That _was loud enough.

"What's going on?" McGee asked from his chair across the room, his breathing back to normal.

Ziva ignored him. "And what do you mean 'unresolved issues'?" Deep down, Ziva knew she couldn't blame Abby for being worried for Tony and reacting this way – they'd all had one of the toughest days of their lives.

"Tony's got memory loss," Abby said, and Tim gasped.

"McGee, do not say anything to him," Ziva warned.

"You think he's not gonna figure it out himself?" McGee said.

"He very nearly has already," Ziva said. "One of us has to tell him, _carefully. _Tony is so set in his ways, he might freak out if he finds out about this in anything other than the exactly right way."

"Have you spoken to a doctor?"

"No, but don't you remember when Gibbs got memory loss? And even when Cole tried to kill Tony and EJ, their memory came back after a while," Abby said.

"So, what? We pretend like it's 2005 until he remembers that it isn't?" McGee asked.

"No, we can't do that," Ziva said dismissively.

"Why not?" Abby said with wide eyes, and the other two sets of eyes went to her. "Think about it, if we _tell _Tony, he could have some kind of freak-out!"

"That happened with Gibbs," Ziva supplied. "I went to see him and he yelled and yelled because he could not remember, and he was supposed to remember."

"Tony would do the exact same thing," McGee said. "He'd bottle up the pressure and blame himself. It's what he always does."

"But we've all changed so much in seven years," Ziva said. "How are we really going to fool him?"

"Well, I think he's come to terms with the fact that I've been working out and he hasn't noticed until now," McGee said. "And Abby's practically the same. So is Gibbs."

"Wait," Abby said. "We have just one little problem with this plan. Jenny."

The three looked solemn. "Is there a chance he doesn't even remember her?"

"No," Ziva answered. "He remembers me, fairly well, actually, which means he must remember her."

"So what do we do?" McGee looked at his two co-workers and friends, and neither had an answer. This felt wrong, going 'behind the back' of a member of their own team, even if it was for their own good.

Abby and Ziva answered in unison: "We go to Gibbs."


End file.
